It's the right time to say no to drunks at the bar'
Pubs and bars seem under attack from all quarters: the chief police officers, the Daily Mail and the Conservative Party have all mounted an opportunistic, ignorant and hysterical attack on the sector forgetting their initial support for reform and the balanced majority response of the public.
And yet, if we really do recognise the high-profile issue of town-centre disorder, we as an industry must play our part in the solution. Of course, the majority of licensees run well-ordered premises and won't tolerate inside the sort of behaviour that sometimes goes on outside.
Drunken young people may well have been to a number of venues, and yes, they probably started their session with cheaper booze from off-licences, but the last drink they had in the pub, club or bar was served to them by someone. It's inescapable that that last drink was served to someone who was not only drunk, but obviously so. This is not only an offence now it will be a criminal offence before the end of this year.
Has the time come when we actually have the courage to say "no" to state that we approve of drinking, that we like our customers socialising and we are very good at providing hospitality but we don't serve drunks.
(Reproduced from the ALMR's newsletter)
Nick Bish
Chief Executive
Association of Licensed Multiple Retailers
9B Walpole Court
London, W5 5DB
Supermarket off-sales feed the binge drinkers'
We can't open a paper or take part in any other public forum without witnessing some illinformed commentator sounding off about our industry, notably about "binge drinking", whatever that is.
We, the licensees at the sharp end, do not deserve the war that is being waged on us. We did not invent binge drinking, neither do we in the main exacerbate it. We, as a body of people, are not entirely blameless, but we are less so than many of the other sections of this problem. Licensees are simply the final link in this sorry chain of human degradation.
My experience of this business is based on having held a full on-licence for 23 years in four premises three pubs and one club. Like many, I have just gone through two years of utter frustration and amazement, trying to make some sense out of the pointless 2003 Licensing Act.
The problem of binge drinking begins in the home where the parents have years of 100% control and influence over their children. My experience is that this is the first failure. We allow children into our country pub as all other meaningful meeting places have succumbed to market forces in our area. After the first few minutes of good behaviour, before the parents are on drink number two, the children become bored.
After tolerating this for some minutes I point out to one or other of the parents that little John or Jane is out of control. Their reaction is to tell the child that if they continue to misbehave they will ask the ogre of a landlord (who is actually rather kind) to tell them off. What's wrong with them doing it? This is the first step in yob culture. Kids are mostly encouraged to do all the right things, but to discourage them from wrong actions appears to be socially unacceptable.
We now come to the greatest input of all to the equation supermarkets and their off-sales. They sell the largest amount of alcohol in the country about 60% at the minimum rate of social responsibility and at maximum profit.
But what is the Government doing about it? So far it seems to view the off-trade as a completely different role to that played by pubs.
What if the tables were turned? For example, if it could be proven that alcohol sold by the off-trade was ending up in the wrong hands, would the local authorities threaten to remove the licence to sell alcohol from the likes of Sains-bury's, Tesco or Somerfield? I think not. It appears that money and influence still rule this country.
To sum up, please let us have some strong proactive leadership at the top of our industry, not reactive as has been the case so far.
PR Patching
Landlord
The Bell Inn
Ducklington
Witney, Oxfordshire
Licence transfer fees will cost a lot of jobs'
I recently attended a familiarisation course held by my local council on its licensing policy. It faced severe questioning over the level of fees even though this wasn't anything it could control.
However, one interesting point it made, was that if you currently have a justices licence, then basically all that happens is that it gives you "rubber stamp" approval (unless you have recently been involved with police over illegal sales etc).
If this is the case, why should we be paying the excessive costs for the application of new licences, when in fact, these are not really new but are being transferred from justices/magistrates court to councils?
I can see the sense of a renewal fee towards policing costs, but this just smacks of yet another "tax" on our already excessively overtaxed industry this is going to cost jobs.
Vernon Anstey
Booze Buster (off-licence)
Longbenton
Tyne & Wear
What is going wrong with new-age licensees?'
Where do today's licensees come from? When I was a licensee there was no BII (British Institute of Innkeeping) asking questions. In 30 years I opened three new houses. In 1972 I was paid the highest bonus ever paid by Bass. This record still stands.
I was surprised when I read the letter (Stocktaking with Alex McGill, Morning Advertiser, 27 January) headed "Go with the flow". Is this an example of today's licensee? He writes: "Over the past few months my stocktaker says"
For months? In my day I'm now 78 if I had a small drop in stock results I found the reason within the time it took for the staff to complete their next session.
A half-decent member of staff will, on free flow, produce an extra gallon of beer on an 18-gallon keg compared to hand pull.
Name and address supplied
